Eye-testing cabinet



May 31, 1927.

ED. TILLYER EYE TESTING CABINET Filed Oct. 12, 1925 BON A C M R D RAVN ESP EQ X m a A B" F ,4- 3 314mm (idar D, Finger;

' g female Patented May 31 1 927 -1 i EDGAR n. arrnnynaor SOUTHBRIDGE,.MASSACHUSE IlTS; memento-Anemia OPTIGALCOMPANY, or SOUTHBR-IDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, A'voLU vrAnY Assocm l a i v 7 TION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

EYE- Engine cr me.

. iiA p plicat ion file d Obtobri 12,?11925] s eam. '62, O.

lhis invention relates generally to new 7 and useful improvements in eye testing apparatus andhas more specific reference'to an eyetesting cabinet employed to deter-' ditions of the eye.

s'mine thevisualjacuityv and astigmatic con tomaryto provide a number of testfcharts I 10 and to position in the rear of each chart, an individual source of illuminatlon. Prior to the present invention these cabinets have been so arranged that 'thelight from the source of illumination would shinedirectly upon said' 'chart so that a portion thereof,

nearest the --light,'-would be brilliantly illu- V minated while the balance of said chart would be only dully illuminated with the result that while the letters or marking. on

the chart within the brilliantly 1 illuminated area might be clearly visible to the patient the'lettersor marking outside of 'thi'sarea would beharder to read and in some cases wholly invisible according to the condition of the eyesof the patient. This unevenness of the patient and results in the examination not being thorough.andeflicient as the patient while being able to discern certain of the letters on" the chart could not, f because of the uneven illumination'niake out other let ters which should have been clearly visible had the entire surface of the chartbeenfuniforn ly lighted withthe consequence that the occulist or optometrist might attributa this 'todefects of the eye while in factv was'simply a defect in thelighting.

The purpose of the, present invention 40 therefore is toovercoine these disadvantages and has for its primary object the, provision of an eye testing cabinet with new andnovel means for producingthe uniform distribu- Figure 7 light di tribution causes anundue strain ontheeyes of the" netwhich, while simple in carat-rash, Will' nevertheless be thoroughly efficient in operation and an advance in theart.

em inven'tionjwill become more re'adily ap Other objects and advantages of'the' pres- U detailed description; reference being had 1 to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings forming a p vention.

with the present invention.

Figure 1.

art 'of this applicat on 'and-whe1 ein are'shown two bodimentsthe present in-f 1 is a front" elevation or an'e e L test ng. cabinet constructed n "accordance Fig. 3 is ase ctionalview Figure 2.

lTig. 4 :is'. an"enlarged sec'tionalwiew"of" one of the cabinet sections showin'g'the 'patlii of travelpf the light-Q j a v Fig; '5 is a view similarlto' Figure t but showing a V V tion."

Referring. more particularly td the companying' drawings wherein like characters of reference denote corresponding' parts throughoutithe several views,the invention, compr ses 111; its'construction a c'abinet gens erally designated by the reference charm:

slight modification ofthe I ra e ter 1 0 and including a rearwalll l and' thG'SlClB wall 12. The inside ofthe cabinet:-

is; divided into four sections 18,14,15 and" 16 by means of the vertical and horizontal intersecting partitions 17 and 18} 1 reflective surfaces. This coating may be applied directly onto the walls, or if more desirable a separate white lining may be secured thereto. v I

Each of the said sections has, a translucent front wall 19 provided with a visual acuity chart 20 or with an astigmatic chart 2l'theseicharts being employed for testing theeyes of the patient.

an incandescent lamp )2 adapted for lighting therespective chart anda'rrangedbetween this lamp and the front wall 19 a 9O The inner'face of the rear 'wall 11 to--' i gether with the top andbottom and side" W l of ea h l se e "ar lgf r w heavy white coating so as to provide'highly 5 I .undue strain on the eyes of the patient and manner and being arranged directly in front shield or reflector 23; said reflector being mounted within the section in a'ny'desired of the lamp sofias to intercept and direct the rays -o f-light projected therefrom.

As the rays of'light from the source of illumination come into contact with the shield or.reflector 23, they will be -directed rearwardly and angularlyc. and against. the) rear and side walls of the section where," due to their reflective surfaces the said walls will cause the rays of light to be re-directed onto,

the chart and; becauseof the spreading of i the rays of light as they comeinto contact with the said reflective surfaces theywill'be evenly and uniformly distributed upon "the e'ntire surface'of the chart. I The general directionof the rays oflight is indicated by the arrowsin Figure l. v y f v Referring more particularly to F-igure 5 -wherein is shown another form of the present invention the construction is somewhat modified in that no separate shield or-reflectorrisv usedbut instead the head of the lampY'Q L is providedwith, a densely frosted coating. as at v which coated portion serves as a reflector and performs the same f'unctions as the aforementioned; reflector :23.

The principle of operation is thesame as described in connection with the first form of the invention. That" is to say, the rays of light coming into contact-with the frosted portion25f. will, be directed against the said J side and rear walls of the section and. thereupon subsequently redirected upon and'uni- 1. formly idistributed throughout the entire surface of the chart.

,From' thefabove it will be readilyappreciated., that ,therehas been: provided an eye 7 testingapparatus containing allof the'ffeatures of advantage enumerated in the statement of theinvention asbeing desirable in a .deviceof this character. 1 The fact that the "light is uniformly distributed upon. theentire surface of the chart, willtendfto reduce will tend towardmaking the examination" of V the: eye more thorough and efficientQ It will: alsov vbe understood ,;that various changes may be .found desirable ,in the construction and arrangement of the various; parts and that any such changes which properly fall within the scope of the appended claims may be made without. departing from k or exceeding the spirit "of lllliiD-VG'IltlOl'l. f

. Actual photometric measurements of the identical, test cabinet with and 'without'the difi'using.reflector;show that without the reflector, the brightness of illumination usuallyvaries in a ratio of two to one from the bright tothe' dark portion of the test chart,

while with. a reflector as described herein aboveit' is possible to reducethis variation in the illumination: to ten per cent and; is

almost impossibleto obtain as (much varia-' tion as twenty per cent even with'little' care 'indesigning the diffusing r'e'flector.f,- V

Havlngthus descrlbed the inventlon is claimed is:

1. In an eye testingfc-abinetya box having. V o

a translucent [side having; test characters thereon anda reflective covering on'ithe'in side walls of the box except onthe transtranslucent side andthe side of'the-boXJOp posite thereto,v and aiscreen between the light and vthetranslucent side vwhereby; the direct rays from "the light.,are scre'enedfr'om the translucent side. I

.V2.'I naneye testing cabinet,ia box having a. translucent side with test characters there; on and internal division'sdividing thefinside of the boxinto a plurahty of compartments of which "the translucent side forms one side of each, compartment, a' reflective, covering on theinside walls of each compartment except on the translucent side, .a source offlight in. each compartment anda screen between the flight, in" each compartment and the trans lucent side wherebytheldirect 'rays'from the light are screened from the translucent side.

'EDGAB DJ ILL E Q,

80. lucent side, a. source of light between the 

